Christian Hope – It's about Him!

Morning Hope – April 19, 2011

We have been looking at some of the spiritual weapons given to us to battle against strife in our lives. Where there is strife and confusion there is every evil work and we are determined to not let the enemy have an inch of our lives to roam around.

Yesterday we looked briefly at Love, I could teach on love for months if not years, but today let’s move on to the next Fruit of the Spirit as told to us in Galatians 5:22-23.  A very familiar scripture, so be careful not to just glance over it.

Galatians 5: 22-23 but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Our next weapon is Joy. Now if you listen to the world it will tell you joy just means “happy”, and it does on a very low, base level. Biblically it means “rejoice”, in this particular case the word is translated from the greek word for “to rejoice exceedingly”.

This doesn’t mean what you “Feel”, that is happiness. It again means what you “Do”. It’s also a choice, just like love.

You may hear in church circles to not let something “Steal your joy”, well I am here to tell you friend, if they do, you allowed it! 🙂 Strife will try to do just that.

On a very real level, having joy means returning good for evil done to you.

You are trusting God to bring good out of all situations because the Word says that “all things work together for good”

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…..

(Please note it does not say all things *ARE* good, but it does lets us know that no matter what situation the enemy or the world tries to throw at us, God is going to handle it and it will work out in the end for our good).

So, if we are trusting God to handle all our situations, when someone is vile, or hurls strife at us we can rejoice exceedingly because our God is on the job! We can walk in Love, and in Joy, as a real witness to what is inside of us working to bring about His good pleasure.

So when strife is hurled at you,  make a choice to not give away your Joy and you will see strife fumble that play! 🙂

Be blessed!

-Kath

Scripture quotations marked “KJV” are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge, 1769.

Morning Hope – April 18, 2011

James 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work (KJV)

Having decided that having every evil work and confusion in our lives is a bad thing, we need to decide how to battle it. We saw last week that our weapons are not carnal, meaning they aren’t something we can do because we “set our mind to it”, they are spiritual.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (KJV)

Strife is translated in some versions as self-seeking. This is really the bottom line to what strife is and does.
In all situations, when we get into strife it’s because we are trying to take care of ourselves, trying to stand up for ourselves , trying to do God’s job. We are not trusting God in that area of our life. We are not trusting God to take care of us and our situation.

So knowing all that, how do we stand against strife when it rears its ugly head?

Let’s look.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (KJV)

So spiritually, all we’ve got is Him, Him being Jesus.
He abides in us and because of that we bring forth much fruit.
It’s His Fruit, it’s all coming from Him , as we see that without Him we can do nothing.
What fruit?

Galatians 5:22-23 but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (KJV)

Lots of folks have these verses memorized and can rattle them off easily. Let’s slow down a minute and not miss the importance of them as weapons, spiritual weapons against strife.

The first is Love, how does love battle strife?
I’m not talking about “mamby-pamby” flowers and butterflies.
I’m not talking about how much you love your car or your *insert thing here that you always say you love*
We toss around this word too easily now a days. We say love when we should say like.
Biblical love is a verb. It’s an action word. It’s a choice to walk in love even when you don’t “Feel” like it. Love is definitely not a feeling spiritually.

Galatians 5:6 tell us that Faith works by Love. If we want our faith to work, we need to be really serious about this love thing. (KJV)

Choosing to love someone that is up in your face, or choosing to love someone that is not being kind to you is no easy thing. But here is the answer, it’s not YOU doing it, it’s you letting HIM love through you.
It’s making a choice to take a deep breath, say to yourself “Self, I forgive this person and I love this person by faith no matter what I feel” and act accordingly.
This is a weapon. It’s funny to think of love as a weapon, but it is. The most powerful weapon against our enemies.
It isn’t easy at first to tell your flesh to shut up when it wants it’s way. But as you do this, daily, sometimes hourly, it becomes easier and easier.
Forgiveness goes along with this. Forgive by faith, even when you don’t “Feel” it. When that old anger rises up say to yourself “Nope! I’ve forgiven so-and-so and I’m not going to be robbed by unforgiveness any longer” and then walk in love in that area.
Look at every opportunity to practice this as a way to stop strife in it’s tracks. Look at every opportunity to practice this as a way to stop EVERY EVIL WORK from coming to work in your lives. Look at it as a way to draw a line in the sand and tell the enemy “NO MORE” in this area of your life. Then watch and God’s power moves on your behalf! You have the power within you, it’s HIM!

You obeying the command of Love, you allowing His fruit to come from within you, will open doors in your life to let God move.  Faith works by love,  and Faith pleases GOD!

If you need prayer in this area please e-mail us or leave comments and we will be happy to come in agreement with you to stop strife in it’s tracks!

Be blessed!
-Kath

Scripture quotations marked “KJV” are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge, 1769.